


Meeting of Minds

by Merfilly



Category: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Love Triangles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-28
Updated: 2006-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-25 15:12:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Diana wants Bruce, and J'onn is her confidante. Yet, J'onn has his own feelings on the matter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting of Minds

If Wonder Woman had been any more tired, she would have growled in frustration as Batman ignored her, yet again. He was so dead set on being alone, that he refused to answer the calling in his heart toward her. No matter what she tried, no matter how she invoked the goddesses, this mere man was completely able to resist her every charm. According to Green Lantern, Batman was reacting negatively to a vision of the future, and setting himself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy of being alone, always.

{"You are projecting anger again, Princess."} As he had in the past, J'onn warned her of her raw emotive state, helping her rein it back in. J'onn was not the only telepath on Earth, and it would not do for enemies to take advantage of her less reasonable states. Not to mention, she noted wryly, it did not help the Martian with his meditations to have a near goddess radiating harsh emotions. That is how they had first begun the checks and balances on her temper; she had come upon him in the observatory, suffering a near 'migraine' from her flying off the handle at one of Flash's more inane pranks.

{"Sorry, J'onn. I don't mean to be so loud in your retreat."} She had asked why he heard her so clearly, that first time. He had explained that many of the so-called meta and alien teammates came through more loudly to him than the average human. And of these, she was more apt to be radiating strong emotions.

{"There is no need for apology."} Then he was there at her side, in the corridor, phasing up from the lower levels. That did not, however, change their mode of conversation. She had come to understand that the mind speech he used was not only more honest, but also more natural to him than verbalizations. Unlike their teammates, she had no compunctions about him being present in her mind.

{"You're very kind to me,"} she sent back to him, resting her hand on his forearm just as he became fully tangible. {"Care to join me for a meal? I found a new place to eat at."} They shared their explorations of Man's World quite a bit, showing each other the various things or places that fascinated them most. When either was at a loss for something they had come across, they often came to the other to discuss it. Diana only had her Amazon heritage to fall back on, which left her almost as alien to the world's experiences as J'onn was.

{"I would enjoy that."} He had returned to the WatchTower more and more over the last year. His human wife had been poisoned by fall out from the battle with Darkseid's people, passing away in her sleep just a few months after that. Diana still remembered the strength he had shown, telling her he had learned the art of living in the now. It allowed him to grieve not only for his wife here but to celebrate the time he had shared with her.

They used the teleporter to the city nearest the Italian grill she wanted to go to, then flew companionably silent to it. Rather than causing a scene, J'onn shifted down to the female guise he had learned, that of a celebrity gossip columnist. Superman had been highly impressed by the various identities J'onn had set up world wide, but liked this brassy woman best. Wonder Woman was prepared too, dropping them into a flat she had rented here to change into civilian attire. The pair, a blonde and a brunette with no flashy costuming, made their way to the grill to eat and catch up with one another.

{"Tell me, Diana, what is it about Batman that you find so much more fascinating than any other male?"} The alien carried on a verbal conversation as well, commenting about the places he had been recently. Diana was adept at the dual conversations; it gave privacy to their more weighty talks, while keeping up normal appearances.

{"I can't tell if it is Batman, or the man I see beneath the cowl. I don't mean that fop Bruce Wayne, either. I mean the real Bruce."} She paused as she sipped her ice water.

{"I can understand that,"} he surprised her by saying, and she felt the wisp of an intriguing emotion in her friend.

{"J'onn, you're harboring feelings for someone on the team!"} Her teasing mind voice caused Goldie to flush and have to drink a quick sip herself.

{"Perhaps."}

`~`~`~`~`

Diana was very curious which League member had caught J'onn's eye. She found herself covertly studying him and his interactions with the other women on the team. When that did not show her anything, she even watched how he interacted with the men. All she could determine was that he tended to be very paternal toward most of the League members, only truly going to a friendly level with ones like herself and Kal. A few, like Bruce, seemed to avoid him or at least not go out of their way to be around him, which bothered her on some level.

"Why are you studying J'onn?" The voice was right in her ear, and normally she would have been thrilled to have him so close. In her distraction to ferret out the crush, she had somewhat dropped her pursuit of the Bat.

"No reason beyond concern for a friend." She turned to view him, struck by the scent of his armor and him, a smell of strength. "Why are you studying me studying him?" Now she was feeling his nearness, feeling that undeniable attraction she had for him.

"Whenever an ally changes their habits, I notice." He saw her jaw clench at being called a mere ally.

{"Kiss him."} The unbidden thought was J'onn's, she realized, and it sounded like a good idea. Perhaps it would stun the Bat out of the man for just a moment, and there were no observers here.

"You infuriate me, with this solitary drive," she said instead. "There's no reason for it. Even J'onn opened his heart to a mortal woman here, even though he knew he would eventually lose her."

"There's no room in my mission for white picket fences and baby carriages."

"Nor mine, Bruce. All I want is to share the fight."

"No."

He turned away, intent on leaving now, before he reacted to her the way she hoped for. He did not truly expect her to make it a confrontation, so her hand closing firmly on his wrist took him somewhat by surprise.

"I'm here, Bruce. I won't leave. And I think I stand a better chance of surviving your war than you do." She pulled slightly, and he obliged by turning around, his jaw line hard and tight. "I'm not even demanding the strings. Just occasional comfort and a break in the loneliness," she offered.

"I think we both know better, Princess," he ground out coldly. Now he did move free of her, his cape swirling as he spun and made his way to his jet.

{"Should have kissed him,"} she sent to J'onn.

{"Actions often speak more truthfully than words."} The Martian sighed. {"He'll be defensive for a time."}

{"Then let him sulk. I'll find other activities."}

`~`~`~`~`

{"I'll make him jealous."} Wonder Woman sounded pleased with herself as she came in, draping herself on the chaise in J'onn's Tower room. {"I have learned it is an acceptable tactic in making a man notice you."}

{"He already notices you; he merely refuses to act upon it,"} the alien said, not even opening his eyes as he meditated in his natural state.

{"Still, if he thinks I no longer want him, and pursue someone else…it may startle him into realizing what he is refusing to see."} She watched as he floated there, cross-legged and at seeming peace with his environment.

{"And who will you use in this plot of yours? Kal?"} He released his meditation, standing up and going to pour them both some water.

{"You."} At her simple answer, he did the Martian equivalent of a coughing double take, turning to view her.

{"You can't be serious, Diana. He knows you view me solely as a friend."} He managed to pour the water without spilling it. {"He would never give you the reaction you are seeking if you use me as your foil."}

{"But he might if he did not know it was you."} Her eyes sparkled wickedly. {"He can't know 'all' the identities you have established. Pick one, and take me to the charity ball in Metropolis tomorrow night."} He looked at her a very long moment, and she wondered if she was asking too much.

{"Very well, Diana. I will do this."} He brought her the glass of water, and sat beside her. {"Shall we watch television now?"} He picked the remote up as she sat close, enjoying his higher body temperature.

{"Yes. While we plot on our debut as a couple."}

`~`~`~`~`

The charity ball was not unlike half a dozen others that Diana had attended, but she had never had an escort quite as attractive as J'onn at any of the others. He had opted to go blond, with piercing green eyes and the build of a runner. He looked completely unlike any of his other personas, except possibly Goldie. Diana had teased him on that as she adjusted the details of his attire for him, to which he had replied that Goldie was always available to escort the Amazon.

Together, they strolled through the ball, with Diana introducing her escort as Randall Rothman. It was an identity J'onn had created solely for learning about Earth economics, and was a successful online broker. Randall had the old school charm that seemed to go far with Diana in past relationships, without treading on her independence. It would be difficult for Bruce Wayne to not see the pair was well matched as they mingled.

{"He is here,"} J'onn told the Amazon with a trace of some indefinable emotion. She barely noted the new flavor of his thoughts before she casually looked around to see billionaire Bruce Wayne, plus one. The plus one was his usual high society drape, with the brains of a cabbage and the body of a model.

{"He saw us, too."} She had a trace of satisfaction in her own voice, before speaking aloud. "Randall, let's dance." Her eyes were merry as he accepted, knowing that she intended them to walk right past Bruce Wayne and his escort. Randall appeared completely besotted with Diana as they did so, but he noted the jaw of the billionaire playboy was quite tight.

{"Perhaps we should not toy with him too much, Diana. He does care for you."} J'onn seemed overly concerned for them.

{"Then he needs to act on it, J'onn. I can't wait forever for him to choose me."} She was mildly impressed at Randall's very sure steps as he led her in the dances. {"You never told me you could dance."}

{"My people had many art forms, among them dance."} He found himself staring into his eyes, and on impulse, he leaned in and claimed a kiss from her. Diana went with it, finding that dancing was not the only art he excelled in.

{"Oh, that must have gotten his full attention,"} she whispered in his mind, a bit shaken by just how well Randall had kissed her. She missed the momentary hesitation and the tightening of the shields on his less public mind.

{"Indeed, Diana."}

`~`~`~`~`

The fact that Batman knew just where to find him, wandering Suicide Slums, should have been unnerving. However, he had a higher estimation of Batman's knowledge than many did.

"It was you last night," the cowled man accused. "You were the Princess's escort." J'onn wondered how it would look, Batman berating a homeless wreck. None could see though, and the Martian opted to shift up to his hybrid form for the sake of evening their eye levels.

"She wished to have an escort." He met the piercing blue eyes calmly.

"Why not John Jones or another of your more public faces?" Batman had his hackles raised, figuratively over their little escapade, and it perversely pleased the alien to see this reaction.

"That, Batman, is for her to explain… should you ask her." J'onn would not make this easy for the man, just as he had not for Wonder Woman. His own tortured state was enough to keep him from cutting through their missteps in their odd courtship. "Your company is the one she seeks actively; and you spurn it. Is it so odd that she might turn to a friend to accompany her to such a function?"

Something in the way he said it set Batman's nerves on edge, especially an odd inflection in the word 'friend'. He drew back into the shadows, studying J'onn for a long moment.

"I believe I will speak to her, J'onn." His voice held an eerie calm, before he melted away.

`~`~`~`~`

Wonder Woman did wonder greatly on how the man who wore the weight of full body armor and a cape that 'did' rustle could so easily sneak up on people with super senses.

"We need to talk." He kept his voice gruff, not wanting to encourage her pursuit of him.

"No, we don't." She did not realize how regal she looked, her nose up in the air and her lips curved into a seductive pout, all very unconscious.

"About J'onn." He watched her attention refocus and snap back to him fully.

"Is something wrong?" Her concern for the being she considered her best friend was quite evident. He almost shook his head, and wondered, for the first time in a long one, just how a little boy from Gotham could have grown up to associate with mythological creatures and aliens.

"Let's go somewhere and discuss why you were paying such close attention to him in recent weeks."

"Jealous?"

"Concerned."

`~`~`~`~`

John Jones had had a bad day. Setting back up into this life had been hard enough, but to go through the red tape to open his detective agency had been more hellish than fighting Kanto. Still, it was what he had finally decided on for a stable source of income, and most in line with what he saw of himself.

Now he sat in a diner, perusing the menu to find anything without meat in it. Though he heard the bell of the door, he did not look up from his menu until two bodies slid into the booth. A cautious glance showed him Diana and Bruce, in nondescript clothing.

"Can I help you folks?" he asked in his midwestern accent.

"We've got some business with you, Jones." Diana's eyes were too serious for the tone she used, worrying the Martian. He grew more concerned when he hit her walls on her public mind, very unaccustomed to being locked out of her thoughts. She had been the first to realize that he needed telepathic contact. Arthur had done so as well, but he was a busy sovereign liege and could not make himself available for 'chit-chat' like Diana did.

"If you'll come with us," Bruce said in a mild manner, but his eyes said that cooperation was essential. J'onn suddenly had images of an intervention in progress, as shown on countless dramas he watched.

"I haven't eaten," he said, not wanting to go until he made some sense of this. Diana let loose a bit of exasperation at that, and he eased somewhat. "But I can stop by later." He dropped some money on the table for Rosey, and headed out with his unexpected company.

`~`~`~`~`

The alien was unsure where they were going, until Bruce turned the car toward the nicer hotels. He arched one eyebrow, but neither of his abductors was in a talkative mood. His repeated attempts to gain resolution on the situation from Diana's mind had failed. When they reached the hotel, Bruce came around and let Diana out as J'onn was extricating himself from the small car.

"This way," Bruce said, sounding too much like the Bat. J'onn felt a reluctance to obey filter in before Diana placed her hand on his arm.

"Please, J'onn. We need to talk." Her blue eyes were entreating, and he felt himself melt to her wishes. Ever the gentleman, he held his arm out, and then covered her hand when she accepted. Bruce led the way, having paused long enough to see if J'onn was going to attempt to flee. Only once they reached the suite he had hired did he let even a tiny bit of emotion show, and that was concern. J'onn was wondering just what he had done to trigger such an emotion in both his dearest friend and Batman.

"As this does not seem to be a social call, shall we 'skip to the chase'?" he asked them with a hint of disapproval for being here.

"J'onn, you and I have been friends since your arrival on Earth," Diana began. "You've listened to me, helped me find my way, and heeded my advice when I saw you drifting away from us all."

"I have," he agreed. "Tell me what that has to do with abducting me from my personal life." He had unconsciously shifted up into his green skinned hybrid form. His glance to Bruce revealed a man who was weighing heavy subjects.

"J'onn." Bruce spoke now. "I'm not unaware of your efforts to help Diana in her quest to woo me." A slight smile touched the Amazon's lips at his choice of words. "I am not comfortable with the thought of any long term engagement, especially with a teammate and friend."

"But I have no such inhibitions," Diana quickly pointed out, her interjection making J'onn analyze things more closely. If they were not here to discuss themselves…He began to get a glimmer of the reason, and felt panic at being trapped like this, where he could not prevaricate and engineer the situation to turn away from himself.

"I realized the other day in Suicide Slums, you have been harboring feelings for Diana," Bruce said. "Putting her happiness ahead of your own, you have aided and abetted her intentions toward me."

"I knew you had feelings, J'onn…I just did not see they were so deep," the Amazon told him. The alien's face was dark and unreadable by either of them.

"I wanted to clear up the waters, so we all knew where each other stood." Bruce cast one look at Diana, a look that betrayed him in the Martian's eyes.

"Then stop lying." The words were harsh and cold. "I aid and abet Diana, not only for her happiness, but yours. Your mind may be hidden from me, Batman, but your heart was not." The tall, green man looked at Wonder Woman. "I wish no pity for my situation, Princess. I knew that your feelings belong with him, and have done what I can to keep mine in check to facilitate the path I see as right." He indicated both of them. "You two belong together. You both yearn for one another, you are equals in potential, regardless of where your strengths ultimately lie." His words carried a force of honesty that shone brightly on the careful shadows Bruce had built over himself. "I would have watched over you both, all my days, Batman, to insure that you both had at least a taste of the happiness that has been my fortress against loneliness." He heard Diana catch her breath sharply. "I will have nothing more to do with the charade of unfeelingness, nor will I be a trial to you, Diana." He began to phase, too angry at having his feelings exposed when all he wanted was for them to be happy.

"You have feelings for both of us." Diana's words were enough to break his concentration on leaving the room intangibly, forcing him to turn and look fully at her.

"You intrude on my privacy," he said aloud, though his first instinct had been to brace her in his mind.

"It's fine for you to strip us bare of the covers we build on ourselves, but not you?" Bruce accused. "Honesty, J'onn. You wanted it, there it is." Now the Martian looked at him, slowly realizing that Bruce was not abhorred by the thought that J'onn cared for him. His anger fled, and his shoulders sagged as he looked down at the floor.

"When all one wants is for the object of his soul's love to be happy, it is not uncommon to come to share their wants and needs as one's own," J'onn admitted. "I have felt kinship with you from the beginning, Batman. In many ways, you are as lonely as I was all those years on Mars." He did not resist as Diana came over and moved into his space, hugging him tightly.

"Please…forgive me for being blind," she murmured. He shook his head at her.

"Forgive me, Diana." With that he did vanish, turning both invisible and intangible as he fled the uncomfortable emotional turmoil. The Amazon and the human could only look at one another with a hope that their friend would be all right.

"What do we do?" Diana asked.

"We wait. We give him just so much time and space, and then we resolve this." Bruce was fully Batman at the moment.

"Resolve it how?"

"By working out a code for us all to abide by." The look he gave her was that of a lost man, knowing he was out of his depth, but knowing this had made everything, even his mission in life, worse.

`~`~`~`~`

Diana showed up at the Batcave the very next night, bearing a gift of steaming hot coffee for the resident crime fighter.

"I suggest a truce, between you and I. For whatever reason, you do not wish to pursue the feelings that were bringing us together." She set the coffee down and he picked it up immediately, a sign for her to continue. "I can accept that. I may wish otherwise, but the world is not mine to command." She looked down at him. "And you are one to never be commanded anyway."

"A truce is a two sided arragement." His voice was a low rumble.

"Help me fix what we've done to J'onn by pressing on his privacy." The pain in her voice was inescapable. "He won't touch my mind, or allow me to touch his. He won't return my calls, and…he would not look at me when I went to the Tower today."

"Give him time, Princess. His privacy is the only thing he keeps for himself." The cowled man looked up at her. "We took that against his will. He's seen the way both of us truly feel all this time, and carefully not used that information to facilitate you and I coming together. I went back over every effort you have made to push us to become a couple, and I can figure his part, when he has helped you. In no case did he actively further your position with me."

"I figured that out too. I think it worked against his tenets of privacy." She did a double take. "The way both of us feel?"

"I never said I did not care. I merely did not wish to pursue it." He stood up, indicating the Batplane. "Come on; we do need to fix this." He let her climb in first, and then made sure she was secure. Once he had strapped in, he took off into the night, knowing just where to find J'onn on a night like this. There was a place in Arizona, where the night sky gleamed with a multitude of stars, but most clearly gave a view of Mars.

The Batplane had to be landed below J'onn's position atop a mountain, but Wonder Woman gave them the lift to reach the lonely alien. The fact that J'onn made no move to leave was a welcome sign, in both their books. Batman especially did not want to spend half a night chasing down the Martian.

"Why have you come?" their prey asked in hollow tones.

"To put it right, J'onn." Batman walked to the rock wall behind the alien, leaning against it while Wonder Woman stayed on the edge where she had landed. It effectively put J'onn between them.

"We apologize." She felt the words did not do justice to the remorse she felt, and apparently J'onn did not either. His head turned away from the stars, his gaze meeting hers and she felt the waves of homesickness overwhelming her in that moment.

"Don't, J'onn." Batman's voice was commanding, but also concerned. "I am the one who proposed we meet the issue head on." He watched the green skinned hero release Diana from the mental hold to look at him.

"Why, when I have respected your privacy time and again?"

"Because I thought it was right." Batman refused to flinch away from the mistakes he had made. "But I was wrong, twice."

"Twice?" J'onn was gathering his emotions close now, no longer infecting them with his melancholy.

"I've played into destiny's hand, or what I saw as fate, by denying feeling." He looked now to Diana. "I chose to push you away, rather than accept, and then lose, you." He watched her frown as she pieced it together. "But I, of all people, should know, no future is set in stone."

"That's one," Diana prompted, resisting the urge to sweep up the vigilante in an embrace to celebrate his admission.

"Two was in forcing J'onn to reveal his true feelings." Batman pushed the cowl back now, becoming Bruce. "J'onn, if I had accepted Diana's suit, what would have come to pass? If we had not braced you?"

"I would have celebrated your love, maintaining the friendship I have held with Diana all this time, and hopefully earning your trust so that you would call me friend too." The alien held his head high, refusing to show any humiliation at what had been done by taking his secrets.

"You said you would have protected us." Diana looked at him anew. "You never would have told me?"

"There would be no need; your happiness is all that I desire."

"I came to understand it today." Bruce walked over to J'onn, unconsciously causing Diana to join them. "Your telepathy, the ability to become one's partner in life, makes you feel the emotions of those you love as your own."

"Yes." J'onn raised one hand to Diana, and was glad when she took it immediately. What surprised him was when Bruce took both of their free hands.

"That isn't the human way, J'onn. We have to share things more intimately," Bruce said patiently. "No outsiders in the relationship."

"I…understand." The Martian started to turn their hands loose, but Bruce held on tightly.

"No, you don't," Diana murmured, seeing it at last in Bruce's tight grip. "We, all three, are bound by emotion."

"And we will forge our rules as we go," Bruce said, a hint of the Bat returning to his voice. "Three is safer," he whispered.

"Because if one falls, two go on," J'onn said, completing the first thought Bruce had ever voluntarily given him.

`~`~`~`~`

One hand roamed over goddess-blessed skin, while another traced the contours of scars from hard years of unending battle. The gentle touch was at complete odds with the power they could bring to bear, but neither person had anything to fear. They continued to enjoy a lazy kiss, tasting the passion they had withheld from one another far too long. The exploring hands roamed lower, moving over hips and thighs with a sensuous lightness before their owner shifted his body to a better vantage. The woman had to gasp in sudden pleasure as the touch turned decidedly more intimate, caressing her with hidden knowledge of her favorite techniques.

The man she had been kissing had to smile at the way her eyelids fluttered shut with the bliss she felt. He moved a bit, to kiss those eyelids tenderly, before slowly moving down to where he could suck at her breast. With one hand reaching out to keep contact with their other lover, he took his time at each breast, gently teasing the nipples as he sucked hungrily. Her moans began to build in intensity as the knowing touch combined with the lustful treatment.

They all were abruptly feeling the peak that she was nearing, as their alien lover let down his walls, and linked their minds. Now it was the human man's turn groan with deep arousal, as all his pleasure points responded to the fire she was feeling. The feelings flowed around the link, letting each taste and savor the desire they shared from all three viewpoints, before the mentalist moved, 'nudging' the man to take his place closer to the woman. Their green skinned lover moved away from them, maintaining the link, as the humans joined fully.

His eyes narrowed as he felt the pleasure of the man he loved mingling with that of the woman he loved even more. He watched, his body control difficult to maintain, as both pressed closer to the climax building. He wanted to express it, to feel what they did, and laid his mind open to both, so he could more fully feel it. Then he felt her hand on his wrist, pulling insistently, and went with it. She soon had his mouth pressed to hers, claiming the kiss that she craved, moaning into his mouth. In returning it, his hunger grew, making him press it harder, almost bruising those fair lips until he felt the man run a hand along his spine.

The cry he let loose was one of sheer pleasure, and encouraged the humans to touch him more, seeking the spots that pleased him. By supreme effort, the man was holding back his release, even as he ached with every thrust to let it happen. Their beautiful lover was rising to meet him, even as her mouth kissed and bit the green neck and shoulder. When the alien shuddered into his native form, neither one recoiled, accepting him and exploring eagerly. He moved to his side, as the man braced with one arm over him. Slowly, the alien turned his face up to the man, and was taken into a savage kiss just as their completion exploded within them, and was shared in their minds. All three clung to one another, letting the violent release subside, with the tiny ripples that followed. Somehow, when they lapsed into a much needed rest, it was the human man cradled between the goddess-woman and their alien lover.


End file.
